Single use surgical gowns have for many years been manufactured with hydroentangled nonwovens, exemplified by Sontara (DuPont, USA). Hydroentangled nonwovens are made from a mix of pulp fibers and synthetic fibers. A cuff of stitched cotton is usually positioned in the low end of the sleeve for comfort and to keep the gown in place and facilitate sterile donning of the surgical gloves.
In recent years, other nonwoven materials have been introduced as alternatives to hydroentangled nonwovens, e.g. SMS nonwovens. SMS nonwoven is constituted of several layers of fibrous webs where an inner layer of meltblown fibers is placed between layers of spunbond fibers. The most common polymers used are polypropylene but polyethylene and copolymers of polyethylene and polypropylene can also be found.
The surgical staff is dressed in sterile surgical gowns in order to avoid transmittance of bacteria to the patient. After donning of the gown, the wearer puts on surgical gloves. The gloves are most often designed with a long cuff portion thus allowing a good enough overlap between the glove and sleeve. The overlap should be with a safety margin to avoid fluid transport in between the sleeve and glove thus creating a breach of the sterile barrier.
Cellulose based hydroentangled nonwovens have typically a relatively high friction towards the glove cuff portion thus maintaining the donned surgical glove securely fit up-tight on the arm of the wearer. The SMS nonwoven consisting of oil based materials has a significantly lower friction towards a surgical glove. Having SMS material as a surgical gown sleeve creates hence a problem to the wearer. During the surgical procedure, the interface between the glove and sleeve are subjected to shear forces that may have the effect that, in the SMS case, the glove cuff slides down the arm which is experienced as uncomfortable by the wearer and also constitutes an increased risk for a sterility breach which may consequently cause postsurgical complications to the patient.
Many attempts have been made to solve this increasingly important problem. According to US 2006/0185059 A1, a self-adherent wrap is used to secure a surgical glove to the surgical gown. Such a solution has the drawback that rather complicated maneuvers have to be made for applying said wrap after the donning of the glove and as consequence thereof such a secured glove is not easy to take off the user without damaging the surgical gown.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,090 B1 describes a surgical garment sleeve having raised profiles of a high friction substance attached as beads or rings. The raised profiles aim to lock the glove in place due to its locally increased thickness in combination with friction. Another solution proposed for obtaining a secure glove to sleeve interface is to coat portions of the sleeve that is included in the glove to sleeve interface with a substance having high friction as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,235,659. Another solution is presented by the Microcool® SecureFit® surgical gown manufactured by Kimberly-Clark (USA) where the lower end of the sleeve has a low tack adhesive applied. The low tack adhesive increases the friction between the sleeve and the inner surface of the surgical glove. However, the frictional forces created by such solutions are not always enough to ensure that the glove does not glide on the sleeve. Furthermore, frictional contact between the glove and the sleeve may disturb the donning of the glove.
WO2005102086A1 describes a surgical gown having gloves adhesively attached to a sleeve of the gown and hence integrated with the surgical gown. Upon donning of the gown, the glove will automatically slip on. The glove may be removed from the gown without compromising material integrity of neither the gown nor the removed glove. A disadvantage by such a solution is that it is complicated for the user to don a gown with gloves integrated into the sleeves. Furthermore, there may be problems for the user in finding a fitting combination of gown and glove.
As another solution to gloves sliding down the sleeves of the gown, patent US 2003/0079272 A1 describes a surgical gown having extended sleeves that allows part of the sleeve to act as flaps over the glove to sleeve interface thus protecting the interface from exposure to fluids. Also this solution leads to a complicated donning of gown and gloves.
The objective of the present invention is to create a surgical garment having a front portion and a back portion and two sleeves and having means for a reliable attachment of a donned glove to the sleeve of a gown without complication of the manner in which a glove is donned.